Financial Gazette (Harare): Zimbabwe: Cape to Cairo - Right to Know Under Attack

Current events indicate that newspaper editors are under siege from Cape to Cairo for defending the people's right to know in the face of state attempts to muzzle the media.

In South Africa, the young editor of the Sunday Times, Mondli Makhanya, has stirred a hornet's nest by making a bold decision to expose scandalous incidents involving the country's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

At the other end of the continent, in Cairo, the editor of an independent daily newspaper is to be prosecuted for publishing reports on the state of the health of Egypt's 78-year president, Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981. In East Africa another editor, albeit of a foreign newspaper, is to be taken to court for reporting on the theft of US$2 billion from state coffers during the 24-year rule of Daniel Arap Moi.

The former Kenyan president's eldest son, Gideon Moi, is reported by the Sunday Times to have threatened to sue the British newspaper, The Guardian, which reported how a risk consultancy firm, Kroll, had exposed "a web of shell companies, hidden trusts and frontmen "used by the Moi dynasty to "funnel vast sums of money abroad". The Guardian reported that the stolen funds were used to buy opulent properties in New York, London and South Africa and that "hundreds of millions" were stashed in foreign bank accounts.

Reacting angrily to the report, Gideon Moi is quoted in the press as saying, "None of us has seen this so-called report but the allegations contained there are untrue and highly libelous. To accuse someone of corruption, which the report purports to do, at this time is very damaging and I intend to take action." The reference to the time of the year is an allusion to the general elections to be held in Kenya in December ahead of which Daniel Arap Moi has endorsed his successor, Mwai Kibaki, whose government has continued to be mired in rampant corruption.

But despite Gideon Moi's rage against the British newspaper, he and his younger brother are reported to be worth a combined 930 million pounds sterling, an obscene level of wealth by the standard of any African country where the majority live below the poverty datum line.

Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the daily newspaper Al-Destur is reported to have offended Mubarak by publishing reports about the president's health. This followed persistent speculation in the country that Mubarak had been hospitalised and had travelled abroad for treatment. The editor, whose paper was once banned for five years, has had previous run-ins with the presidency. He is reported to have been convicted last year for insulting Mubarak in an article published in his, newspaper.

His current troubles will re-ignite debate on whether details about the health of Africa's long-serving but still mortal presidents should be a state secret to be kept away from the people they govern. At 78, Mubarak is not a young man and in addition to the natural and inevitable march of time, 26 years at the helm will also have taken their toll. It should not be a punishable offence to report on these realities.

The Sunday Times and its editor Mondli Makhaya were taken to court for publishing details of Tshabalala-Msimang's alcoholism and criminal record involving a theft case for which she had been convicted in Botswana while serving as a medical superintendent. Msimang-Tshabalala underwent surgery for a liver transplant a few months ago. Her liver needed to be replaced allegedly because it had been damaged by years of heavy drinking.

The Sunday Times claimed that under normal circumstances the 66-year old minister would not have qualified to get a donated organ but had used her influence to jump the queue ahead of more deserving cases. The paper believed that it was immoral for the minister to continue drinking after getting this new lease of life and that it was hypocritical for her to campaign against alcohol abuse in her official capacity as the steward of the nation's health when she could not practice what she preached.

Predictably, Makhanya was crucified by the administration of Thabo Mbeki,which accused him of conducting a vendetta against Tshabalala-Msimang and tarnishing the image of the government. Encouragingly, however, in a law suit instituted by the minister against Makhanya and the Sunday Times, the editor was vindicated. In an outcome hailed as a victory for the freedom of the press, High Court Judge Mahomed Jajbhay upheld the public's right to know and the paper's right to publish, although Tshabala-Msimang's lawyers had argued that the Sunday Times had obtained the information illegally.

"The information, although unlawfully obtained, went simply beyond being interesting to the public; there was in fact a pressing need for the public to be informed about the information contained in the medical records", said Jajbhay. "The publiction of the unlawfully obtained controversial information was capable of contributing to a debate in our democratic society relating to a politician in the exercise of her functions.

The Sunday Times lawyers had argued that there was debate in South Africa on whether or not Tshabalala-Msimang was fit for high office. There were many reasons for questioning the minister's fitness for office and ordinary South Africans were entitled to any information bearing on that aspect. The minister had publicly crusaded against alcohol abuse and pointed out its social and economic costs. "In order for this important message to resonate with the appropriate authority and persuasiveness, the first applicant (the minister) must both live her life consistently with the message and be seen to do so. Anything less would suggest both hypocrisy and seriously undermine the message..."

The judge upheld these arguments, declaring; "This is a case where the need for the truth is, in fact, overwhelming. Indeed in this matter the personality involved as well as her status establishes her newsworthiness." One of the bizarre aspects of the case was the "dog-eat-dog" reaction of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to the controversy. Describing the press as "the enemy of the people", SABC chief executive officer, Dali Mpofu complained, "We cannot remain quiet when our mothers and democratically chosen leaders are stripped naked for the sole reason of selling newspapers."